The road to guitar mastery can at first seem daunting. So many different styles, shapes and sizes of guitars, all vying for your attention and the chance to make your wallet lighter. But, as with anything, the options can seem clearer if you simply filter out the things which are not suitable for you, and focus instead on the tools which can help you as you explore the world of guitar playing.
If you’re not sure which books in particular you should try out, we’ve got you covered. The five titles below are some of the best books on the guitar you’re ever going to find, and as a bonus they’re all relatively affordable. Without further ado, our list of the best guitar books!
[otp_overlay]

Firstly theres no specific book for learning to play the electric guitar, its just a series of books to learn the guitar. My recommendation to you, learn to play on the acoustic guitar, then playing in the electric will be a peice of cake.
3 Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk “Eddie” Van Halen is a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen.
No Stephen Carpenter?? He has to be definitely in the top 150. May not be the most technically advanced but he has played so many different styles with the Deftones, and makes the most awesome and beautiful riffs that have been made!
Is there a book you could recommend for an adult who already plays another instrument (violin/viola) but wants to learn guitar? It would be for my son who is 32 and expressed an interest in guitar recently. I have an acoustic guitar he could use but I thought I’d get him a beginning guitar book as a gift to go with it.
Here we have another awesome guitar from Epiphone, based on the 1967 version of the iconic Gibson SG. This ‘67 SG has the authentic asymmetrical double-cutaway shape you’d expect, with a mahogany body and a SlimTaper D-shaped bolt-on mahogany neck, with rosewood fretboard and 22 frets. It looks great, and feels comfortable and well-balanced to hold. The G-310, as we explain in our full review, is fitted with two Epiphone open-coil alnico humbuckers at the bridge and neck, which deliver plenty of warmth and tone to deal with both classic and modern styles. It also features LockTone tuners and a tune-o-matic bridge, with stopbar tailpiece, for good tuning stability. In all, it’s a great modern version of a true classic.
{ “thumbImageID”: “Les-Paul-Tribute-2018–Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Satin-Gold-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard/K35721000002001”, “defaultDisplayName”: “Gibson Les Paul Tribute 2018 – Solid Body Electric Guitar”, “styleThumbWidth”: “60”, “styleThumbHeight”: “60”, “styleOptions”: [ { “name”: “Satin Gold Vintage White Pearl Pickguard”, “sku”: “sku:site51500000137390”, “price”: 1149.0, “regularPrice”: 1149.0, “msrpPrice”: 1919.0, “priceVisibility”: “1”, “skuUrl”: “/Gibson/Les-Paul-Tribute-2018-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Satin-Gold-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard-1500000137390.gc”, “skuImageId”: “Les-Paul-Tribute-2018–Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Satin-Gold-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard/K35721000002001”, “brandName”: “Gibson”, “stickerDisplayText”: “Top Seller”, “stickerClass”: “”, “condition”: “New”, “priceDropPrice”:””, “wasPrice”: “”, “priceDrop”: “”, “placeholder”: “https://static.guitarcenter.com/img/cmn/c.gif”, “assetPath”: “https://media.guitarcenter.com/is/image/MMGS7/Les-Paul-Tribute-2018–Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Satin-Gold-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard/K35721000002001-00-60×60.jpg”, “imgAlt”: “” } , { “name”: “Faded Honey Burst Vintage White Pearl Pickguard”, “sku”: “sku:site51500000137389”, “price”: 1149.0, “regularPrice”: 1149.0, “msrpPrice”: 1919.0, “priceVisibility”: “1”, “skuUrl”: “/Gibson/Les-Paul-Tribute-2018-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Faded-Honey-Burst-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard-1500000137389.gc”, “skuImageId”: “Les-Paul-Tribute-2018–Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Faded-Honey-Burst-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard/K35721000001001”, “brandName”: “Gibson”, “stickerDisplayText”: “Top Seller”, “stickerClass”: “”, “condition”: “New”, “priceDropPrice”:””, “wasPrice”: “”, “priceDrop”: “”, “placeholder”: “https://static.guitarcenter.com/img/cmn/c.gif”, “assetPath”: “https://media.guitarcenter.com/is/image/MMGS7/Les-Paul-Tribute-2018–Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Faded-Honey-Burst-Vintage-White-Pearl-Pickguard/K35721000001001-00-60×60.jpg”, “imgAlt”: “” } ] }

While it’s true you don’t need to read music to play guitar, you do want to learn to read chord charts. A chord chart is a visual representation of a guitar chord. Chord charts are a little like music-by-numbers—they tell you which finger goes where and on what string, so in case you come up against a chord you don’t know, you’ll be able to play it.
Chords are the building blocks of music and it’s important to know them inside out. Cost free guitar apps like Uberchord app (get a free download here) are great for practicing and learning in a fun and easy way, but I’ll also get into some important details in this article to help take your learning to the next level.
Playing guitar is an exercise in memorization. There’s really no way around it. You have to remember stuff, and the primary thing you have to remember is where notes are on the fretboard. Eventually, muscle and ear memory will kick in and the remembering will get easier, but for the first little while, every time you play guitar, it’s like a pop quiz. It’s not fun to memorize something by brute force, but it pays dividends. This book teaches you how to visualize the notes, which will lead quickly to remembering them. Once you know where the notes are, forming chords becomes easier, which leads to fluid playing in any position. At the very least, if you can identify your root notes, you can bail yourself out of trouble at any time. That skill for resolution serves you in improvisation and the random jams that will provide much of your growth.
Specifically, the book includes exercises to focus on sweeping, alternate picking, string skipping, and bending in addition to arpeggios and legato. Keep in mind, this book builds on the skills you’ll learn and practice along the way. Having said that, intermediate players can jump a few chapters and still get a ton of value out of the guitar exercises in this book. In that way, it really can function as a choose-your-own-adventure type way to learn guitar that matches your current skill level.
We think the reason this book is so good is because of its readability. That is, it starts very slowly in theory, and Tom does an excellent job of explaining the constructs of music theory in simple and understandable terms. From there, the concepts are set up in such a way that is easy to follow and very thorough. Mr. Kolb did a great job of laying out the sequence of the topics to make them understandable to someone picking up a guide to music theory for the first time.
An excerpt: “Like Coca-Cola, Levi’s, or Harley Davidson, Gibson has transcended mere brand-name status to become a presence in life. It seems like Gibson has just always been there; and for all practical musical purposes, that’s true.”
An electric guitar is the key component of the rock guitar sound. Take a look at this figure to identify the major parts of a typical electric guitar, and read the chord diagram for finger placement. The tablature, or tab, is represented to show the frets and strings of the guitar.
The most technical electric guitarist…ever. Steve Vai may not be as flash as the likes of John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert, but when he does go flat-out, he’s untouchable. Vai has mastered every technique imaginable, but still has soul. ‘Passion and Warfare’ and ‘The Ultra Zone’ are must haves. – Floods
The biggest issue when starting out is not to get any bad habits with picking or hand/finger positioning. I’d highly recommend to find a teacher who – not necessarily on a periodical basis – would take a closer look at your progress and technique and make adjustments when needed. There are lots of bad habits that you can get and I’d rather spend some money on lessons than weeks of lifetime to undo those.

This is a great DVD, and Keith’s style is very laid back, and easy to listen to. You can’t help but like the guy, and once you start watching the DVD, you don’t want to stop. He is extremely knowledgable, and it is like having an instructor right there with you. The DVD begins with the very basics, and works up to some quite complicated playing, so there would be something in this for everyone, from complete beginners (like me) to those looking for more challenges with their playing. For the price, I don’t think you can go wrong.
This is an amazing list but i think at this point in his career brian haner jr.(synyster gates) from avenged sevenfold should be on there. Not is he only an amazing shredding guitarist for the band but hes super creative along with the whole band. They all get credit for everything its not just one guy in there obviously but as far as guitar goes hes an absolute beast he can play anything from shedding metal solos and riffs to laid back country and jazz and has been around long enough to have deserve it. Same with jacky vincent.
When buying an electric guitar, you should know the level of experience of the person you are purchasing it for. Electric guitar cost for beginners is typically much lower than that made for experienced guitar players. It is also worth noting that left-handed electric guitars are often more expensive than their right-handed counterparts. Consider the need for more expensive hardware, as you can shave some cost off of the purchase by avoiding floating bridges and active pickups. Also, you can lower the associated electric guitar cost by purchasing a gig-bag instead of case, or a soft case instead of a hard case.
Thank you for writing this article, now I have all the time I need in buying my first electric guitar. I’ve been playing acoustic for like 10 years. I think this is the right time to upgrade my skills.
Use your 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers as shown, and start by putting your 1st finger in the 3rd fret of the sixth string (the note G). Then put down your 3rd and 4th fingers. If this is a bit of stretch, don’t worry, you will soon limber up! Try to keep them together, the 3rd finger kind of on top of the 4th as shown.
Klaus its pleasing to see that you’ve included Rory Gallagher, he quite frequently gets ignored because he shunned commercialism to stay true to guitar playing. Admittedly I’m biased, Rory was related to me but I had the pleasure to meet and talk to him a few times and his down to earth personality was a credit.
{ “thumbImageID”: “Special-Edition-Standard-Stratocaster-Electric-Guitar-Black/H64303000001000”, “defaultDisplayName”: “Fender Special Edition Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar”, “styleThumbWidth”: “60”, “styleThumbHeight”: “60”, “styleOptions”: [ ] }
Semi-hollow body electric guitars are basically a middle ground between a solid body electric and a fully hollow body electric guitar. Jazz, country, and rock guitarists alike may gravitate towards semi-hollow body electric guitars for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that semi-hollow body guitars still produce that rich, resonant sound of a hollow instrument, but they typically have a solid or sometimes chambered center block in between the top and back. This design helps fight off that unwanted body-resonant feedback we spoke about before while even adding some extra sustain. Gibson offers a wide selection of semi-hollow body electric guitars, which include the iconic Gibson ES-335. Guitar brands such as Gretsch and Ibanez are also widely recognized for their semi-hollow body electric guitars.

{ “thumbImageID”: “SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Heritage-Cherry-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000003001”, “defaultDisplayName”: “Gibson SG Standard 2018 Electric Guitar”, “styleThumbWidth”: “60”, “styleThumbHeight”: “60”, “styleOptions”: [ { “name”: “Heritage Cherry 5-ply Black Pickguard”, “sku”: “sku:site51500000137401”, “price”: 1539.0, “regularPrice”: 1539.0, “msrpPrice”: 2569.0, “priceVisibility”: “1”, “skuUrl”: “/Gibson/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Heritage-Cherry-5-ply-Black-Pickguard-1500000137401.gc”, “skuImageId”: “SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Heritage-Cherry-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000003001”, “brandName”: “Gibson”, “stickerDisplayText”: “Top Seller”, “stickerClass”: “”, “condition”: “New”, “priceDropPrice”:””, “wasPrice”: “”, “priceDrop”: “”, “placeholder”: “https://static.guitarcenter.com/img/cmn/c.gif”, “assetPath”: “https://media.guitarcenter.com/is/image/MMGS7/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Heritage-Cherry-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000003001-00-60×60.jpg”, “imgAlt”: “” } , { “name”: “Autumn Shade 5-ply Black Pickguard”, “sku”: “sku:site51500000137400”, “price”: 1539.0, “regularPrice”: 1539.0, “msrpPrice”: 2569.0, “priceVisibility”: “1”, “skuUrl”: “/Gibson/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Autumn-Shade-5-ply-Black-Pickguard-1500000137400.gc”, “skuImageId”: “SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Autumn-Shade-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000001001”, “brandName”: “Gibson”, “stickerDisplayText”: “Top Seller”, “stickerClass”: “”, “condition”: “New”, “priceDropPrice”:””, “wasPrice”: “”, “priceDrop”: “”, “placeholder”: “https://static.guitarcenter.com/img/cmn/c.gif”, “assetPath”: “https://media.guitarcenter.com/is/image/MMGS7/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Autumn-Shade-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000001001-00-60×60.jpg”, “imgAlt”: “” } , { “name”: “Ebony 5-ply Black Pickguard”, “sku”: “sku:site51500000137399”, “price”: 1539.0, “regularPrice”: 1539.0, “msrpPrice”: 2569.0, “priceVisibility”: “1”, “skuUrl”: “/Gibson/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Ebony-5-ply-Black-Pickguard-1500000137399.gc”, “skuImageId”: “SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Ebony-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000002001”, “brandName”: “Gibson”, “stickerDisplayText”: “Top Seller”, “stickerClass”: “”, “condition”: “New”, “priceDropPrice”:””, “wasPrice”: “”, “priceDrop”: “”, “placeholder”: “https://static.guitarcenter.com/img/cmn/c.gif”, “assetPath”: “https://media.guitarcenter.com/is/image/MMGS7/SG-Standard-2018-Electric-Guitar-Ebony-5-ply-Black-Pickguard/K35719000002001-00-60×60.jpg”, “imgAlt”: “” } ] }
An excerpt: “Scorned, laughed at, jeered, chided, and derided. The concept of the solidbody electric guitar was subject to such utter disdain in some corners that it’s almost hard to believe it ever came to be at all. The ridicule and mockery would have been enough to send a less self-confident inventor running for the hills. Given our more than 55 years of perspective, though, we know it just had to be; a world without the solidbody guitar? Moreover, without the Gibson Les Paul? Unthinkable …”
#8 Some people need to start listening to more music than Justin Beiber! It is shameful that Page is this low. If you are 20 or under please go listen to some Led Zeppelin music and come back and then vote.
Before you begin, it’s important to understand that a book can’t teach you guitar. They’re great as references and serve as a fine starting point, but soon enough, you need to take what you’ve learned and try to integrate it into a performative craft alongside other musicians. If you find yourself getting stuck, take the exercise you’re on to a jam with like-minded musicians who can help you work practically with the material. At the very least, set a backing track and learn how to time those new skills. So much of playing is about feel, which is a magical combination of timing and groove that only exists in the moment.
Use of a slide or bottleneck. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the material originally used for such slides: the necks of glass bottles. Instead of altering the pitch of a string in the normal manner (by pressing the string against a fret), a slide is placed upon the string to vary its vibrating length and thus its pitch. The slide can be moved along the string without lifting, creating continuous transitions in pitch.
You may find guitar chords represented a number of ways across the internet. Here at beginner electric guitar we use a very simple method to represent them diagramatically which you should be able to interpret quite easily. This way is very common and is the standard way of representing chords in music books and music theory.
Buckethead would be Top 5 easy if he were more mainstream. The man can play anything and make it his own. If you’re interested, I’d give “Nottingham Lace”, “Final Wars”, “Big Sur Moon”, “Population Override”, and “Soothsayer” a try just to get an idea of what I’m talking about. The sky is the limit from there.
By the 1950’s, brands like Gibson and Fender were gaining notoriety thanks to the popularity of rock ‘n’ roll and its stars. Players like Dick Dale, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Chet Atkins could all be found carving their own places in music history with the electric guitar, and by the early 60’s the instrument saw an extraordinary upsurge in popularity. Today, there are an endless amount of rock sub-genres, making no shortage of superbly crafted electric guitars from the world biggest brands, including Ibanez, Epiphone, and Danelectro, as well as Godin, Gretsch, Peavey and more. Whether you’re into black metal or folk rock, you can be sure that there’s an electric guitar that perfectly matches your own style and tastes, and it can easily be found right here, regardless of your skill level or budget.

Written by longstanding Gibson correspondent Dave Hunter and guitar historian Walter Carter, this DVD and spiral-bound book set covers the complete range of Gibson guitars. Read excerpts of the book here, here, and here.
{ “thumbImageID”: “Limited-Edition-Les-Paul-Traditional-PRO-Electric-Guitar-Ebony/423561000018000”, “defaultDisplayName”: “Epiphone Limited Edition Les Paul Traditional PRO Electric Guitar”, “styleThumbWidth”: “60”, “styleThumbHeight”: “60”, “styleOptions”: [ ] }
Double-coil or “humbucker” pickups were invented as a way to reduce or counter the unwanted ambient hum sounds (known as 60-cycle hum). Humbuckers have two coils of opposite magnetic and electric polarity to produce a differential signal. Electromagnetic noise that hits both coils equally tries to drive the pickup signal toward positive on one coil and toward negative on the other, which cancels out the noise. The two coils are wired in phase, so their signal adds together. This high combined inductance of the two coils leads to the richer, “fatter” tone associated with humbucking pickups.
An excerpt: “The Dobro brand name has been identified with resonator guitars since 1929 and is currently owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation. Despite its registered trademark status, the Dobro name has at times been used generically to refer to woodbodied instruments with 1) an aluminum cone or “resonator” mounted so that the cone opens toward the top of the instrument and 2) an 8-armed spider assembly supporting the bridge.”
Quite often, power chords are played with only down-strums, and often with a technique called palm muting, which might make it less vital to mute the unused strings. But it is REALLY important to mute them because many songs do use up- and down-strums with power chords (‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ springs to mind). Also, if you don’t mute them, and you play loud with distortion, the strings might ring out—even if you don’t pick them—and which will make your chords sound messy. So make sure you get your string muting sorted now!
I guess since he’s not even on the list no one has heard of him. But in my opinion, he is much better than many of those who are at the top of this list. Just listen to his Second Winter album and you will see the light.
Fingerboards vary as much as necks. The fingerboard surface usually has a cross-sectional radius that is optimized to accommodate finger movement for different playing techniques. Fingerboard radius typically ranges from nearly flat (a very large radius) to radically arched (a small radius). The vintage Fender Telecaster, for example, has a typical small radius of approximately 7.25 inches. Some manufacturers have experimented with fret profile and material, fret layout, number of frets, and modifications of the fingerboard surface for various reasons. Some innovations were intended to improve playability by ergonomic means, such as Warmoth Guitars’ compound radius fingerboard. Scalloped fingerboards added enhanced microtonality during fast legato runs. Fanned frets intend to provide each string with an optimal playing tension and enhanced musicality. Some guitars have no frets—and others, like the Gittler guitar, have no neck in the traditional sense.
The road toward becoming a better guitarist is paved in… books? It certainly can be, although there are plenty of routes that both beginners and professionals take to improve upon — and bone up on — their craft. The books on this list are about history and technique. They’re books that you’ll pull off the shelf for years to come to look up a vintage guitar you’re curious about or a chord progression or song you’ve been meaning to master. You may find additional inspiration reading the autobiographies of your favorite guitarists, but we decided to leave those off this particular list. If you’re in the market for a good guitar book, read on.
Fender is arguably the most successful electric-guitar brand on the planet. Its Stratocaster and Telecaster designs have been played by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Lucinda Williams, in every imaginable musical genre. Much of the time, those guitars are plugged into Fender amplifiers.
There are even boards now for each specific instrument, so it’s easy to get the advice you need. They are not solely aimed at beginners, but there is lots of advice from experienced players and I’m sure you’ll get plenty of advice here from other GAS sufferers 🙂

TheGuitarLesson.com, created by Tom Fontana, is dedicated to bringing the highest quality guitar tutorials to beginner guitarists. Through creating fun and engaging guitar lessons, we aim to spread our love of the guitar to as many new players as possible.
Let’s get it straight. Froo – Shawn – Tey. If you don’t know him, he’s the lead guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frusciante is the author of the brilliant chord progression on Under the Bridge, the haunting intro to Californication and the simplistic solo and riff on Otherside. If you’re the casual listener of the Chili Peppers, then you may wonder why John has made it so far up this list. But a tad of a closer look will reveal that his simple catchy riffs are the tip of the ice berg. One can catch a glimpse at his technical skill in the Dani California solo. A bit deeper and you’ll run into Lyon 06.06.06 in one of the B Sides. John takes his influences (Page, Hendrix) and mixes his own nuances into a sound that’s pleasantly different, but melodically having the same effects on you. A track to look out for on his solo work – Ramparts – showcasing four or so guitars layered upon each other in an introspective orchestra.
The white circles along the top of the chord tell you that you should still be strumming those strings with no fingers pressed on them. If you see an X above a string that means you should try not to strum that string while playing the chord.
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals. The vibration occurs when a guitarist strums, plucks, fingerpicks, or taps the strings. The pickup used to sense the vibration generally uses electromagnetic induction to do so, though other technologies exist. In any case, the signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is sent to a guitar amplifier before being sent to the speaker, which converts it into audible sound.
Why is kurt cobain number 48?!!! I mean, he made good music but is never will be better than prince or george benson. Kurt Cobain is a really good songwriter but c’mon, he is not a very good guitar player.
We do not deliver on Sundays, but do sometimes deliver on Saturday depending on the carrier that is delivering your order. The best way to determine the date of delivery is to check the status in My Account .